Jagged seven Inches

19 November 2004 — 11:00am

In 1996, edgy art-punks Les Savy Fav (pronounced Lay Sahvy Fahv), without a record release to their name, came up with a concept: release nine seven-inch singles on nine different record labels, then gather the 18 songs on a single CD to make an album.

Eight years later, the idea has come to fruition in Inches, a collection of frenetic tempos, jagged rhythms and cerebral lyrics that is, essentially, the New York-based quartet's fourth album.

"We definitely enjoyed making the singles," Les Savy Fav bassist Syd Butler says on the eve of the band's first Australian tour, on which they'll be joined by Seattle outfit Pretty Girls Make Graves. "We enjoyed making these small releases, and have enjoyed being part of different communities when the singles have come out. We've liked putting seven-inches out on different labels and sharing the love, I guess."

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It was was also in 1996 that Les Savy Fav arrived in New York City. The band were born at art school in Providence, Rhode Island, reared in an experimental mid-1990s scene that bred acts such as nihilist bass and drums duo Lightning Bolt and shape-shifting, art-noise outfit Black Dice. Upon arriving in New York, though, the band discovered no such musical community.

"Electro and Brooklyn dance beats, that sort of stuff, it just didn't exist. And there actually weren't that many rock bands at all when we moved," Butler recalls. But then, all of a sudden, he says, "Williamsburg happened".

After years of seeing their adopted home as something of an underground-music wasteland, the band suddenly saw Brooklyn's hippest neighbourhood sire a slew of interesting bands - Butler cites Enon, Liars and the Rapture as outfits with the capacity to inspire. "It was so cheap to live there. Kids could move there from different places and have big practice spaces," he says.

By 2001 the movement had gained momentum, and a year later glossy mags clamoured to crown Williamsburg the capital of cool. Having been based there, Les Savy Fav watched the media frenzy from a distance. "These bands had actually been around for a while, playing shows, working really hard and paying their dues. When these bands blew up, people were like, 'Where are all these great bands springing from?', but the reality was that they'd actually already been around for a long time."

Although they were a little removed from the centre of a scene, the focus on all things New York and "new rock" meant the band were wined and dined by major labels. They rebuffed the offers, however, releasing Inches on Butler's French Kiss label.

"We definitely had those offers. We just weren't interested - at all," he says. "We were happy to stay off on our own, with our own complete independence. We're actually one of the few that didn't sign with a major label. We didn't want to follow that road. And so, therefore, we never really encountered that hype."